


fools who dream

by osamabxnlarry



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Actor Stiles, F/F, F/M, M/M, Writer Derek, erica stiles isaac and scott are roommates, everyone lives in brooklyn for the most part, i really don't know what isaac does, scott is a publisher person, stiles is such a dreamer, stiles works at a doctor who themed bar, there is lots of growing up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-31
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 14:03:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9126937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/osamabxnlarry/pseuds/osamabxnlarry
Summary: Stiles is a struggling actor not-so patiently waiting for his big break.Derek is an award winning screenwriter and director who's in a bit of a rut as far as inspiration goes.Scott and Isaac are just cute.





	

**Author's Note:**

> If this is shit, I apologize. This is the first fic I have ever published and I'm super new at this so hey. 
> 
> This is very very very loosely based on La La Land. I wouldn't even say it's based on it, considering I have yet to see the movie, it's more like inspired by,,
> 
> anyway see ya

Stiles Stilinski wants to be famous. 

Not in a National Inquirer reality television way like Tila Tequila (is she even famous?) or Kim Kardashian. 

It’s not that he doesn’t absolutely love watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and every spin off show that follows it. In fact he’s got the entire family on Tweet Alert, even Scott.

That kind of fame just isn’t for Stiles. He wants his name in lights, sure, but in a far more subtle way. Like no one is killing themselves for a photo of Daniel Day Lewis or Meryl Streep. They’ve got like at the most five guys following them at once, and that’s when they’re filming a project mostly. 

They’ve got the best set up if he’s being honest, they’re notorious enough to not have to accept every single paying role they receive, they’ve got a couple of Oscars under their belt, and they really never have to work again. They could just settle into an early retirement in the Hamptons, pick up gardening, maybe take a particular interest in baking, and still get invited to the Academy Awards every year until they die.

What a life. 

That’s pretty much Stiles’ plan if everything goes accordingly. 

He’s dreamed of being an actor since he was five years old and he first snuck out of bed and took refuge on the stairs, watching the old romances his mom used to always play at night through the banister. 

He remembers his jaw dropping in quiet awe the first time he saw Julie Andrews sing The Hills are Alive alongside his mother. The wonder in his eyes the first time his dad showed him Star Wars. Stiles couldn’t believe how much time and effort went into movies, how people could create entire alternate universes and stories, and make them seem so beautiful, so real. It was magical, is magical.

From then on he was hooked.He raided his family’s dvd collection at every opportunity, and forced his parents to take him to the movies twice a week, constantly auditioning for small plays in Beacon Hills. He went through phases, weeks where he watched nothing but westerns, months of only romances.

Everyone kind of thought he would let go of his impossible dream before college, in fact, he thought he would too. When his mom died, things changed. Acting was more than just a fantasy for him after that, it was another way to hold desperately on to his mother, another way to feel close to her, a way to delay his acceptance of the fact that he would never see her again.

When they first learned she had cancer, she was put on bedrest, with nothing to do but to lay under her rose embroidered comforter, reading, and watching and sleeping. Stiles remembers crawling into bed with her replaying their favorites Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Grease, Rushmore and American Psycho, every movie they loved.

The night before she died, Stiles crawled into the sterile white sheets of the hospital bed she had been sleeping in for months. They fell asleep watching The Royal Tenenbaums. 

She didn’t wake up. 

The first couple of months, Stiles completely isolated himself from the outside world, and did not touch a film. It felt like weeks of staring at the wall, sleeping, and occasionally crying. It hurt too much to do anything that reminded him of her. 

Who wants to know that the person you love and need the most can just vanish forever?

When he stopped grieving (or stopped showing it) acting, his aspiration in life became an obsession. He knew then that he would never, ever, give up on it despite the unimpressive odds of his dream coming true. He spent the rest of his youth starring in underwhelming high school and local theatre productions. When he started at Tisch he got a couple of starring roles in amatuer short films his classmates and friends created. Not really much more than that. Isaac says he’s too picky which is why he never gets payed roles. It’s true, Stiles has far too much pride to star in orange juice commercials.

He thinks he’s too much of a traditionalist. He kind of just expects someone to take a chance on him, and then he’s suddenly thrust into the spotlight, becoming the leading role in a movie that is a shoo in for the Academy Awards, and then his career just blossoms from there. However, this has not been the case, yet.

He currently shares a three bedroom apartment with four people in Prospect Heights. It used to just be three people, but then Isaac and Scott started fucking, and they decided moving into the same room was a huge milestone in their relationship,even though they already lived across the hall from each other. 

Erica, Isaac’s best friend from Fordham, moved in with them shortly after. Sharing a bathroom with three other people sucks, but Stiles can’t even complain. Erica’s hilarious, she has HBO so Stiles can finally catch up on Game of Thrones, and he got to quit his part time job at the Ice Cream Factory because his share of rent decreased.

He’s definitely in the starving artist phase of his career right now. Stiles is pretty okay with it though, because as soon as he becomes a famous actor and wins a couple of Oscars and retires to garden in the Hamptons, he’ll have a shit ton of material for a page-turning memoir.

______________________________________________________________________________

Derek is thoroughly convinced he is completely void of any original ideas. 

Expectations fucking ruin art as pretentious as it sounds.

He’s makes two good movies within five years and now everyone expects him to churn out masterpieces like a well oiled machine. It simply doesn’t work like that, sadly.

He spends over an hour attempting to write, and by the time Laura calls he’s written a total of one sentence. He’s surprisingly grateful when his sister calls him, giving him a reason to distract himself from his work. 

“Hey bitch,” Laura’s personality is the most cliche thing Derek has ever encountered. She would definitely fit the role of the overly confident, loud and proud friend of the reserved and quiet writer main character in those god-awful romantic comedies Derek secretly loves. She’s the only person he’s ever heard say things like “Hey bitch” and not be completely sarcastic.

“Laura.” Derek grunts out in response. 

“Ugh. You and your grunting, can you please start speaking in coherent sentences Der.”  
Laura waits a bit for Derek to reply but he just kind of breathes heavily on the other line (he’s got a cold and can’t breathe through his nose) Laura continues despite his silence. “I know you’re trying to play up the whole “shy and introverted creative genius” hermit thing but this is getting ridiculous.” 

Derek doesn’t really know what to say, but he doesn’t want to blatantly ignore his sister again so he just says “Okay.” 

“Derek!” Laura exclaims. “I’m just trying to help you out alright, your self inflicted leprosy is kind of getting old in all honesty. And also I would just like to remind you again, that “okay” does not serve as an appropriate reply to every single thing anyone says at any time ever.”

It’s silent for a while before Derek finally says “Okay,” just to piss Laura off this time.  
Laura breathes out a quick laugh before it transitions into a sigh. “There’s this free improv class my friend Braeden’s having at Magnet, you should come.”

Derek’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. “Why the hell would I go to an improv class?”

“I don’t know Derek! You should just come because it’s pretty fun, I went last Thursday, and it’s just something to do. Maybe you’ll even make a friend, though it’s doubtful.”

 

“Is Braeden your friend who was in that Off-Broadway production of Rent we saw that one time?” 

“Yes! You liked her did you not?” Laura asks around a smile.

“Yeah, she was an extra in a Christopher Nolan film and it was pretty fascinating to hear her talk about it ..”

“So you’ll go?!” Laura asks excitedly.

“Ugh, fine.” Derek finally huffs out after a moment of deliberation.

Laura does a literal “hehe” before quickly saying goodbye and hanging up with Derek.

Derek gives up on writing, leaves his office and falls onto his couch with a soft plop. Guess now is a good time to rewatch Game of Thrones.

______________________________________________________________________________

Stiles stares blankly at the flat screen television hanging from the brick wall playing Doctor Who. He’s so bored. 

It’s Tuesday, at four pm, and he works at bar, meaning it’s dead as fuck. He opened at two and there has been a total of one customer (that was there for about 5 minutes) the entire day.

He knows he should be enjoying this peace and quiet considering this place will be relatively crowded by seven, but he’s just so fucking bored.

He works at The Way Station, this Doctor Who steampunk themed restaurant. He first started working here when he was dating Smith, his ex-boyfriend.

Smith was the most pretentious person he had ever met, let alone dated. He had long curly hair he always wore in a bun with some shitty tie dye headband on his forehead. He never shut about being a Nihilist and he always carried a hardback copy of Infinite Jest in his vegan leather messenger bag. Smith always told people it was his favorite book and he liked to reread it, but now that Stiles thinks about it, he’s pretty sure he just never finished the book in the entire six months they dated. Smith thought he was a god, though he would never admit it, because he was on “Hot Dudes Reading” one time. 

Smith’s indie band (he said it had no genre because he didn’t believe in labels) played there one night, and Stiles, after their performance walked into the bathroom to see Smith making out with a random ginger. Smith was all “monogamy is a myth blah blah” and Stiles was all “We should break up.” and that was the end of their relationship.

The random girl Smith was making out with turned out to be Lydia Martin, the manager of The Way Station. She felt so horrible, insisting she didn’t know Smith had a boyfriend, so she offered Stiles a job. She probably didn’t actually expect him to take it. 

Stiles starts wiping the counter tops, not out of necessity but because there’s nothing else to do. He doesn’t want Lydia to pop in and see him doing absolutely nothing, so he tries to make himself look busy. 

‘Finally,’ he thinks as he hears the bell of the door ring. He turns around to see Isaac and Scott,holding hands as they make their way through the door, they’re probably just here to beg for free beer and fuck in the bathrooms. Stiles rolls his eyes.

“Hello,” Isaac sings cheerily, taking a seat at the red leather stool placed in front of the bar.

“Hey, Stiles,” Scott smiles following suit.

Stiles stops harshly wiping the table only to say “You can’t have free liquor.”

“We’re not here to beg asshole, we’re here to celebrate,” Isaac beams “Scott tell him.”

“I got a job at HarperCollins.” Scott tries to come off as humble, but you can tell he’s absolutely thrilled.

Stiles shakes himself out of his stupor at the good news “Oh my god Scott that’s - that’s great.” 

“I know! I was trying to play it cool but I just can not, at all. I’m gonna be working under Laura Hale who I’ve already met, she’s amazing. I can’t believe I’ve actually just received my kind of dream job, I’m gonna be making a crap ton more money, and I don’t even have to hate working there.” Scott says in one breath, letting out a huff of exhaustion and excitement when he’s finally done.

Isaac sits next to him rubbing small circles on Scott’s flannel clad back as he rants enthusiastically.

Stiles give an encouraging smile, the kind expected from him, but inside, he’s flipping the fuck out. Scott getting this job could change everything, and not in a completely good way. 

There are currently two completely rational and plausible scenarios that would ruin Stiles’ life as he knows it as a result of Scott’s new job.

One: Isaac and Scott decide to move out and get their own place because they can afford it and they want privacy.

Two, oh god, Two: Isaac and Scott literally move to fucking Manhattan because they decide Scott’s long commute from Brooklyn to Broadway everyday is not worth it.

Stiles’ knows this is adequate proof that he’s harboring some pretty serious attachment issues but he can’t help it. It’s mostly because of his crippling fear of aging. If Scott and Isaac move to Manhattan it’s pretty much cementing all of their adulthoods. 

They’ll become those friends that make small talk on the phone like once a week, and get plastered together on special-ish occasions and then go their separate ways. Adults don’t have sleepovers!

FuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuck 

Stiles knows he’s being selfish but he can’t help it, he doesn’t want things to change at all. He doesn’t mind his life as it is now, he might even enjoy it. 

“You know what, everyone drinks on me!” Scott finally says hoarsely.

“Scott,” Isaac says in a drawl. “There are three people here, and one of them is Stiles, an employee.”

“I know, I just always wanted to say that but I would never want to actually pay for an entire bar’s drinks, so it seemed like an appropriate time to use that line.” 

They all give good-natured sitcom laughs, and Stiles pours the couple two pints of beer.

They chat enthusiastically about Scott’s new job and Stiles half listens, still managing to ooh and ahh at the correct moments in the conversation. 

He desperately wishes he wasn’t on the clock, now would be a good fucking time to drown his sorrows.


End file.
